Flying, for some reason it feels really natural to me. I guess it is something I don’t know about.

There were certain instances where I felt like I knew much more about the world. It was more like instinct; ingrained in your very soul.

Anything I read I could understand quite a bit of it. I’m not sure why that’s the case, but I feel like it’s something natural to me. I spent the entire day in the library going through all the various books from history, geography to basic alchemy. I was like a sponge soaking in all the knowledge I could get my hands upon.

I discovered that we lived in the city of Khar. This city was the capital of the Kingdom of Terelia. The Kingdom was located in the Eastern section of the central plane of the continent. The Capital was extremely large with a width of about a 1000 Km’s. For non-cultivators, there are teleportation arrays set up about in different parts of the city.

The population of the city was about 250 million. About 95% of it being humans, considering this was a human kingdom.

I also discovered that I had no access to certain books, one of them being ‘History of the Targ Sect’. It was weird because as soon as I tried to touch them, I was pushed back by a gentle shock to my hands. I realised certain books and journals were enchanted.

I find a book called ‘basics of cultivation’. It lists general information about the cultivation ranks and methods at the beginner level.

The cultivation levels are as follows:

1.      Mortal Realm

2.      Lord Realm

3.      King Realm

4.      Emperor Realm

5.      Divine Realm

Each realm is divided into four stages; early, middle, late and peak.

I find that none of the cultivation methods are suitable for me as I am too young. The meridians in a person’s body start to open up and join together around at the age of five. Once the meridians are all joined up, the root of the dantian starts to sprout above one’s pubic region; it usually happens around the ages of eight or nine year olds. This represents the true start in one’s journey onto the path of cultivation. Not everyone is able to form their dantian though; some people go through their entire lives trying to form a connection to their dantian.

It is something that cannot be forced and must form naturally.

The book also mentions something about the legendary soul cultivators. Though, none of them have appeared in the past One hundred thousand years. Everyone just considers them as myths of a bygone era.

The key to increase one’s cultivation depends upon the way in which one can absorb the world Qi from their surroundings.

Qi exists in everything from the plants, earth and air to small animals and large beasts. But not everyone has the ability to form an ethereal connection to their surroundings.

It depends upon a person’s latent talent to sense their surroundings. In order to test a person’s talent, an object called the soul stone is used. This stone is primarily used by large cultivating schools to select the best talents.

Preceding the Mortal Realm, there are five stages:

1.      Qi sensing

2.      Qi gathering

3.      Qi condensation

4.      Skeletal manipulation

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5.      Marrow cleansing

Generally your average cultivator gets stuck in the Qi gathering stage for a really long time and when he does advance, it usually is very late to realise one’s potential.

The average lifespan of a normal cultivator is a hundred and fifty years. Once someone breaks into the Mortal Realm, their lifespan increases to about five hundred years. If they then break into the King Realm, their lifespan increases to five thousand years. Anyone above the King Realm is usually considered to be an immortal as there are no Emperor Realm experts in the Kingdom of Terelia. There may be some outside the kingdom, but currently they are an unfathomable level for me. As for Divine Realm cultivators, there are no recorded existences. The divine realm is considered as a mythical realm.

There is also something called magic or elemental manipulation. Basically it involves the ability to sense, control, direct and implement the forces of nature; fire, water, wind, earth, light and darkness. Any subsets of these elements like ice, magma, lightning etc. can only be achieved upon the mastery over their precursor elements.

Anyone, who is unsuccessful in the path of martial cultivation, tends to pick up one of the other professions. A mage is usually their top option as it is usually considered the next best thing.

The combat ability of mages is severely restricted. As in any close combat situation, 99 times out of a 100 they come out second best. Mages are usually useful for long range combat and that is where they shine.

But any normal mage is easy pickings for a cultivator in the Mortal Realm. Mages, other than their elemental defenses have extremely weak bodies. A single hit from a Mortal Realm cultivator is usually fatal. Hence, one will find that many cultivators in the Mortal Realm or above are usually proficient in the manipulation of at least one natural element.

Enchanters are people who are not proficient in manipulation but in magic spells. These spells have various uses like making powerful weapons and artifacts.

Arrayists are skilled in magic formations. These formations are useful in setting up very strong defenses against enemy combatants. A large scale array has the ability to cause extreme large scale destruction. Though the downside is these formations are that they take a long amount of time to set up and if an arrayist is disturbed while setting up a formation they would have to start all over again as the mind link is usually severed.

Then the most common professions are blacksmiths and farmers. Blacksmiths make simple iron and steel weapons. They also make other construction tools. Farmers on the other hand just grow food and herd cattle and small beasts.

After absorbing all this information, I decide to call it a day. The sun is about to set and I’m hungry as well. I wonder what mother has made for dinner.

The next day I don’t go straight to the library, instead I decide to play with mother. “Azreth, why do you want to play with me, don’t you want to go and read some books in the library?” asks my mother. “Mother, I love you…” and I start bawling on my mother’s bosom. She caresses my head and plays with my hair. I hug her with all the strength I can muster. “Azreth, what’s wrong what happened?!” mother asks in a concerned manner. I rub my face filled with tears and snot on my mother’s shoulder and reply “nothing…” Then I spent the entire day playing with mother without a care in the world. My father came home that evening and then I played with him for the rest of the day.

I have realised the time I get to spend with my parents is going to be extremely limited when I tread my path on cultivation.

There is no one I love more than my mother and father. I also really like the warmth of my mother.

The path to cultivation is a really long one and one must cherish every moment they can get with their loved ones.